A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[Molpet]

Is anyone here familiar with turkey forcefeeding(overfeeding)? Here in eastern Europe our elders used to force feed toms with whole wallnuts to give the bird a better taste and fat. They used to give the bird one wallnut in first day, 2 wallnuts in second, 3 in third...up to 30 wallnuts after 30 days. I`d like to learn more about.

Mine love walnuts, I wouldn't have to force them. When I mow it breaks them open and they fight over them.

 

[R2elk]

The force feeding is about fattening the turkeys for processing. When it was still in vogue, the turkey was typically put in a crate to prevent moving around and was force fed to keep its crop completely full in order to get as rapid weight gain as possible.

The normal food for force feeding was corn. They also had abundant water available.

What an animal or bird eats does affect the flavor of the meat. My turkeys gorge themselves on the Russian Olives. They produce a thick layer of light colored to translucent fat. Corn produces a bright yellow fat. Either makes a delicious turkey.

 

[rjohns39]

My last were incredibly lean... This batch of BBWs i'm doing will get corn the last 30 days as a lunch. The last of my red bronze I cooked produced like a table spoon of fat for my gravy. Had to supplement with butter.

 

[memphis]

My girls are svelte. They maintain a nice weight. Daisy exercises by flying on a regular basis...helps her keep her girlish figure. Annie tends to like long walks to maintain her figure.

 

[gluglu]

The force feeding is about fattening the turkeys for processing. When it was still in vogue, the turkey was typically put in a crate to prevent moving around and was force fed to keep its crop completely full in order to get as rapid weight gain as possible.

The normal food for force feeding was corn. They also had abundant water available.

What an animal or bird eats does affect the flavor of the meat. My turkeys gorge themselves on the Russian Olives. They produce a thick layer of light colored to translucent fat. Corn produces a bright yellow fat. Either makes a delicious turkey.

I`ll do the force feeding for comercial purpose only. I have a group of 35 toms borned in february, the heaviest already weight 10 kg, average weight is 8,5-9 kg. I`ll feed them with whole walnuts and will keep record to see how much they gain. They will gain yellow fat from walnuts. My bees loves Russian olives trees flowers, it gives a very good honey.

 

[R2elk]

I`ll do the force feeding for comercial purpose only. I have a group of 35 toms borned in february, the heaviest already weight 10 kg, average weight is 8,5-9 kg. I`ll feed them with whole walnuts and will keep record to see how much they gain. They will gain yellow fat from walnuts. My bees loves Russian olives trees flowers, it gives a very good honey.

I don't force feed anything. All of my poultry has full access to feed and water at all times. After gorging on the Russian Olives all of my turkeys have at least 1/4" of a white translucent fat under everywhere of their skin. That does not include the major layers of fat in the body cavities.

My bees work the Russian Olive trees very hard but I don't consider it a good honey and am glad that the majority of it goes into the hive bodies instead of in the supers. I love the super light honey mine produce in the fall from the sweet clover and weeds.

 

[PolarBerry]

I find it funny the regional differences in turkey varieties that are more common. Like here everyone has Narraganset or sweetgrass or royal palm... I have wait lists for my bourbon reds.

Side note: has anyone ever successfully incubated turkey eggs under a chicken hen regularly? Just hoping maybe one of my australorp or Sussex will go broody and can raise some turkeys for me, haha. Or that my turkey hen (or the new ones) will develop some mothering skills. Or get a few silkies since they’ll brood anything. Guess depends how stubborn they are if they stick with it long enough.

Mud season approaches us here... I went yesterday and got a few yards of large bark nuggets to cover the turkey run by the coop door. Was ankle deep mud (for the turkeys) and our rainy season has yet to even fully begin! Thankfully they’re enjoying scratching around the bark vs being terrified of it.

 

[Molpet]

I find it funny the regional differences in turkey varieties that are more common. Like here everyone has Narraganset or sweetgrass or royal palm... I have wait lists for my bourbon reds.

Side note: has anyone ever successfully incubated turkey eggs under a chicken hen regularly? Just hoping maybe one of my australorp or Sussex will go broody and can raise some turkeys for me, haha. Or that my turkey hen (or the new ones) will develop some mothering skills. Or get a few silkies since they’ll brood anything. Guess depends how stubborn they are if they stick with it long enough.

Mud season approaches us here... I went yesterday and got a few yards of large bark nuggets to cover the turkey run by the coop door. Was ankle deep mud (for the turkeys) and our rainy season has yet to even fully begin! Thankfully they’re enjoying scratching around the bark vs being terrified of it.

4 chickens have hatch poults this year fo me. I set eggs under 5, but she abandoned the nest 10 days in... she died a week later.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I find it funny the regional differences in turkey varieties that are more common. Like here everyone has Narraganset or sweetgrass or royal palm... I have wait lists for my bourbon reds.

Side note: has anyone ever successfully incubated turkey eggs under a chicken hen regularly? Just hoping maybe one of my australorp or Sussex will go broody and can raise some turkeys for me, haha. Or that my turkey hen (or the new ones) will develop some mothering skills. Or get a few silkies since they’ll brood anything. Guess depends how stubborn they are if they stick with it long enough.

Mud season approaches us here... I went yesterday and got a few yards of large bark nuggets to cover the turkey run by the coop door. Was ankle deep mud (for the turkeys) and our rainy season has yet to even fully begin! Thankfully they’re enjoying scratching around the bark vs being terrified of it.

You want some super broodies, get a hold of @fisherlady and see if she can ship you some of her silver penciled rock eggs! They have the craziest broody gene I've ever seen! I don't know if she'd be willing to ship it not though. My silkies rarely brood but my SPR girl from her raised at least 3 clutches a year!

 

[gluglu]

I find it funny the regional differences in turkey varieties that are more common. Like here everyone has Narraganset or sweetgrass or royal palm... I have wait lists for my bourbon reds.

Side note: has anyone ever successfully incubated turkey eggs under a chicken hen regularly? Just hoping maybe one of my australorp or Sussex will go broody and can raise some turkeys for me, haha. Or that my turkey hen (or the new ones) will develop some mothering skills. Or get a few silkies since they’ll brood anything. Guess depends how stubborn they are if they stick with it long enough.

Mud season approaches us here... I went yesterday and got a few yards of large bark nuggets to cover the turkey run by the coop door. Was ankle deep mud (for the turkeys) and our rainy season has yet to even fully begin! Thankfully they’re enjoying scratching around the bark vs being terrified of it.

I had success in past incubating turkey eggs under a chicken(i tryed it a few times when i had shortage on turkey hens), tryed it a few times. After the poults came out i moved them to turkey hens bcs they care better for the poults.